from the San Bernardino County Sun
Tuesday January 25, 2005 -- San Bernardino, California
By Trevor Summons, Correspondent

It has taken 18 months for artist Deborah Smith to recover from her loss.

"We took some 35 originals down to my mother's house in San Bernardino," she said. "Unfortunately, my mother's house was a casualty of the Old Fire that swept through the area in October that year. It destroyed every painting."

The painting represented many years of work for the San Bernardino native and it has taken her a little time to get back on her artistic course once again.

"In fact, I've been drawn more and more to working with metal," she said.

"Perhaps it's because that doesn't burn", she said with a smile.

Smith's work is rather unusual, as a visit to her Web site will show.

"I consider myself a social satirist," she continued. "I get an idea, and then work on it to produce a satire of the subject and how best to communicate it."

Hanging in Smith's hall is an example of her work. It is called " Patriotic Duty" and represents the call to carry on as normal after the attacks of 9-11. The painting shows the Statue of Liberty in bright, somewhat garish, colors, holding a credit card and draped in expensive consumer goods.

Her latest bronze also has an anti-capitalist theme, and is called " Fossil Fuel." It is a statue of a skeletal tyrannosaurus being ridden by a capitalist. The brute is hoisting a military Humvee in its jaws.

"I've always been a bit of a rebel," she said. "I was the black sheep of the family."

The diminutive artist doesn't seem quite so rebellious in her comfortable mountain home, which she shares with her husband, Michael Karp, a successful family guidance counselor.

Karp is a great enthusiast of his wife's work.

"It has meaning," he said. "It's not just decorative fluff. The political and societal meaning it has helps (give one) a deeper understanding of her art."

Smith's paintings have mostly been done in cast paper. This is a method where a mold is made and a three-dimensional work is produced from paper, which has been completely softened with water in a blender. The dried, molded paper is then painted, adding great depth to the piece.

During her student days in Los Angeles, Smith was a limo driver.

As such, she drove for many famous people and got to know the celebrity scene from the driver's perspective. Several of her works represent that period and that view.

"May I Have Your Autograph" is one such work where the view is in the place of the celebrity with adoring fans wanting a signature. Another work has a similar theme, but depicts fans completely ignoring the lowly driver, who just merges into the background.

Smith's works have been shown at several museums. She recently was awarded a shared first prize in Santa Cruz, and her work has also been shown at a traveling exhibition called "Art from the Driver's Seat." Her piece titled "The Scream" reflects back on her limo days and the frustration of dealing with L.A. traffic.

Smith has a number of sad photos reflecting the damage to her mother's home and the ashes that were left after the Old Fire burned through and took all of her art with it.

But this cancer survivor, who lived through several grueling bouts of treatment as a teenager, knows how to fight back.

Smith's art will continue and her satirical view of society will help us all to put some perspective into our otherwise consumer-driven lives.